Jakob Bro, Joe Lovano, Larry Grenadier, Thomas Morgan, AC, Jorge Rossy, Joey Baron: Live at The Village Vanguard [2CD]

Modal Jazz / Contemporary Jazz
premiera polska: 2025-10-14
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Dania
opakowanie: Digipackowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com * * * * *
Nagrany w legendarnym nowojorskim Village Vanguard, które to miejsce gościło kilka pokoleń jazzmanów. Album oddaje surową bezpośredniość i głębię atmosfery tego wyjątkowego spotkania. Subtelny, głęboko melodyjny i niespieszny "Live at The Village Vanguard" ujawnia wyjątkowy talent Bro do tworzenia przestrzennych muzycznych pejzaży. Duński gitarzysta zaprosił do współpracy wspaniałych improwizatorów - Joe Lovano, Larry'ego Grenadiera, Thomasa Morgana, Andersa Christensena, Jorge Rossy'ego i Joey'a Barona.
Już od pierwszych sekund nagrania wiemy, że mamy do czynienia z muzycznym gwiazdozbiorem Jakoba Bro, jednego z najwspanialszych jazzowych gitarzystów, choć przypisywanie go tylko do jednego gatunku jest sporym błędem. Na jego talencie poznał się choćby Tomasz Stańko zatrudniając wówczas 29-latka do zespołu (wraz z Andersem Christensenem) przy okazji nagrywania "Dark Eyes" (ECM, 2009).
Muzyka zawarta na "Live at The Village Vanguard" (2CD/2LP) obsypuje słuchacza melodyjnymi strukturami, dźwiękowymi filigranami i swoistymi muzycznymi bazgrołami, choć przypadkowości tutaj nie ma za grosz. Pomimo tego, że cały czas dzieją się nowe muzyczne zdarzenia, Bro z kolegami oferuje nam bezkresny ocean refleksyjnego spokoju. Jasno zdefiniowane melodie, harmonie i rytmy to kolejny fundament unikalnego języka Bro, doskonale tutaj reprezentowany.
Narracja płyty wyróżnia się przejrzystością i logiczną strukturą. Pomimo tego, że mamy do czynienia z muzyką w dużym stopniu wyimprowizowaną, skrzącą się od błyskotliwych pomysłów, "Live at The Village Vanguard" dzięki mistrzowskiemu panowaniu nad dramaturgią całości, adekwatnym zmianom zarówno dynamiki, jak i instrumentalnych efektów daje moc satysfakcji!
autor: Witek Leśniak
Copyright © 1996-2025 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved

Editor's info
Loveland Music proudly announces the release of Live at The Village Vanguard, a remarkable new recording that brings together seven of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz. Recorded in the legendary New York room that has defined generations of improvised music, this album captures the raw immediacy and atmospheric depth of a once‑in‑a‑lifetime gathering. Subtle, deeply melodic, and unhurried, Live at The Village Vanguard reveals Bro’s unique gift for creating spacious musical landscapes while inviting some of the most expressive improvisers of today into dialogue.

allaboutjazz.com * * * * 1/2
Legendary guitarist Jakob Bro revitalized the pensive romanticism of the ECM Records sound with last year's Taking Turns, and continues his crusade in Live at the Village Vanguard. His strategy is simple: a diverse cast, both in style and generation, slavishly dedicated to a dynamic trajectory, like a viscous alloy rushing violent in an aged riverbed. In this case, the mold is the enduring memory of Paul Motian, chiefly represented by former band mate Joe Lovano, but haunting even Bro's original compositions.
The first track cakes a Motian composition, "Abacus" from his trio with Enrico Pieranunzi and Marc Johnson, between three originals. "Sound Creation Dug Abacus Pause," aside from a mouthful, is a loping, eerie battle of ghastly wills. "Sound Creation" is reminiscent of the swooning melancholy in Taking Turns, complete with soulful licks by Lovano's tenor and a deliciously disjointed bass duo by Larry Grenadier and Thomas Morgan. "Dug," though difficult to define chronologically, is noted by a sharp turn by the bass and Bro himself. Grenadier and Morgan meet into a cohesive, cinematic trembling, while the guitar grows percussive, snaking around the dual mallets of Jorge Rossy and Joey Baron. A shadowy climax is foretold, and met, in Motian's composition, which is gifted a gothic menace unlike previous iterations of the tune. AC's bass guitar flashes and burns underneath Bro's corrosive layering, then cycles back to Lovano's return, an elegiac lathe over the residing chatter.
On the B-side, two more Bro stand-outs: "Colors" and "Song to an Old Friend." A quick descent into cool mysticism defines the first, perhaps apparent in Bro's entire composing career, a strange battle between bop and the classical inflected ECM style that always waged at the heart of his experiments. These tensions are ably aggravated by Lovano in the second track, who soars contrary to his leader's moody drawl.
The C-and D-sides also invoke Motian directly with two cuts from his trio with Bill Frisell and Lovano himself, both with somber reverence. "Once Around the Park," another '90s cut, is mirrored by the band's own "Once Around the Room." Like the names would suggest, the latter is insular, intimate, a many-chambered arrangement of solos and clangy chatter. The former is expansive. Quick fingering from Rossy and Baron keep the performance mobile and urban, while Lovano and Bro are themselves like street performers, heard violently for an instant before fading to obscurity. In "Room," their crooning is stripped of accompaniment and forced into lonely abstraction. It's one of the more daring inversions in recent memory.
By Fran Kursztejn

muzycy:
Jakob Bro: Guitar
Joe Lovano: Tenor Saxophone & Tarogato
Larry Grenadier: Double Bass
Thomas Morgan: Double Bass
AC: Bass Guitar
Jorge Rossy: Drums
Joey Baron: Drums

utwory:
CD1:
1. Sound Creation (Bro, Lovano, Grenadier, Morgan, AC, Rossy, Baron)
2. Dug (Bro)
3. Abacus (Motian)
4. Pause (Bro)
5. Colors (Bro)

CD2:
1. Song To An Old Friend (Bro)
2. Once Around The Park (Motian)
3. Once Around The Room (Bro, Lovano, Grenadier, Morgan, AC, Rossy, Baron)
4. As It Should Be (Lovano)
5. Mumbo Jumbo (Motian)

wydano: March 7, 2025
nagrano: Recorded at The Village Vanguard on May 26, 27 & 28, 2023

more info: www.lovelandrecords.dk
more info2: www.jakobbro.com